"Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level.”
-United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Climate Change 2007 Synthesis Report
Human activity, such as burning fossil fuels for home heating, transportation and various industrial activities including mining, manufacturing and large-scale farming, is the primary cause of global climate change. Historically, this activity and the resulting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have been the responsibility of the global North, or the wealthy, industrialized nations.
Yet the burden of climate change –extreme weather events, drought, flooding, crop failures, destroyed fisheries and loss of habitat and homeland– is being disproportionately borne by poor and marginalized communities of the global South, peoples who are the least responsible for the changes we are seeing in the world today.
Climate change is thus more than a question of environmental sustainability; it is a question of justice. KAIROS believes that climate justice involves making real reductions in carbon emissions as well as addressing the social and economic inequities between the rich and the poor—both of these are inextricably linked.
Resources from KAIROS
- Worship in Celebration of Earth Day
- Briefing paper: Federal Subsidies to Fossil Fuel Producers
- KAIROS policy paper: Re-energizing the Future: Faith and Justice in a Post-Petroleum World.
- Petition on subsidies to the oil and gas industry and federal initiatives for greenhouse gas emission reductions
- KAIROS Media Backgrounder
- Are Agrofuels Alternatives to Oil?
- African Church Leaders' Statement on Climate Change and Water
- Climate Justice for All: Statement from the World Council of Churches (WCC) to the High-Level Ministerial Segment of the UN Climate Conference in Nairobi
- World Council of Churches statement to the high level segment of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP11 and COP/MOP1) Montréal
- Report on the 11th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the 1st Session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol COP11/MOP1
- Moving Beyond Kyoto with Equity, Justice and Solidarity; A World Council of Churches Study Document
- Solidarity with Victims of Climate Change: Reflections on the World Council of Churches' Response to Climate Change
Resources from other groups
(These are offered for educational purposes; KAIROS does not necessarily endorse the content of external links.)
KAIROS monitors disappointing Canadian GHG emissions reporting
KAIROS continues to monitor Canada’s annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reporting required under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Environment Canada has just released the National Inventory Report 1990-2010: Greenhouse Gas Sources and Sinks in Canada, which shows an overall 0.25% growth in emissions during the 2009-2010 period. While there was a 43% decline in coal-related emissions between 2005 and 2010, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers reports that there was a 14% growth in emissions from the tar sands sector between 2009 and 2010, with a 2% increase in the per barrel intensity of emissions. Efforts by provinces to reduce … [Read more...]